Should I Choose between public, private and hybrid cloud

Cloud business solutions and services seem to be the newest trend in the business world and there are many hybrid cloud providers and private cloud services available.

According to a KPMG study, 81% of companies had become involved with cloud services in some way. They were either analyzing them, planning to use them, or already using them. This clearly shows that more businesses are interested in using cloud-based solutions for their content delivery.

This statistic is certainly understandable because there are a lot of benefits to using clouds for content delivery. They allow businesses to be faster and more flexible in their distribution practices.

Companies can also deliver work easily throughout their organization without raising the budget of the IT department. However, there is an ongoing debate amongst Chief Information Officers and IT managers of companies over whether private clouds or public clouds are better for them.

Managed Cloud Servers

There are many factors to consider when you choose to use either a hybrid, private, or public cloud. For starters, the importance of the applications which are being transferred to the cloud must be considered.

Businesses must be sure they’re complying with regulatory issues and considering workload usage patterns, critical service levels, and the application integration level with various functions of the enterprise.

Overall, you must be able to tell the difference between a public cloud service and a private cloud service. Only then can you make an educated decision as to which cloud service to use for your organization.

The Basics of Public Cloud Services

Public cloud services are online services provided to customers. This is a service which hosts all the applications and core infrastructure that the customer uses. A cloud hosting service provider is the entity which provides this hosting at their own premises.

Although customers can access their applications on the cloud, they do not have power over the hosting itself.

Multiple organizations are sharing the main infrastructure of the cloud; however, the applications and data of each organization get segregated within the cloud. That way, there won’t be any unauthorized access to them.

A lot of businesses prefer public cloud services because they are less complex, and the application testing process can be done faster. The best part is that public cloud services are very cheap and usually require hardly any capital to be spent.

Private Cloud Definition and The Basics of Private Cloud Services

Private cloud services use a private platform to host the computing infrastructure rather than a public platform. This means that each organization will have private access to their own internal cloud.

Third-party organizations will not be sharing the resources of this platform with you. Organizations can use virtualization to create a private cloud for themselves.

The main benefit of using private cloud services is that you don’t need to upgrade your hardware and equipment.

You can just utilize the hardware of the cloud’s current infrastructure. Another benefit is that a private cloud is located on the premises of the customer.

This gives the customer more power over the cloud and the infrastructure. If a customer wants to add more services, a private cloud gives them the power to do this too.

The Pros of Public Cloud Services

Each service is going to have its pros and cons. Here we will talk about the benefits (pros) of public cloud services for your business and why they might work better for you than private cloud services.

– Public cloud services are fast, efficient, and simple to use. They are offered to customers online as a service. A third-party cloud hosting provider is the entity that controls and hosts everything for you.

Customers use the internet to connect to the cloud and they get charged a usage fee for it (every month or year).

– Public cloud services are affordable to the average small business or any organization that wants to reduce their information technology budget. After all, it can cost a lot of money to buy the physical servers and other hardware for running the clouds.

On top of that, you will exert a lot of energy to run the hardware and that will cost you more money too.

The benefit of a public cloud is that it’s virtual and does not require you to purchase any hardware. The third-party host’s hardware gets used instead. Because of this, you won’t have to hire an IT worker to run anything so that will save you money as well.

Also, the public cloud service can be customized in various ways. You can choose the number of users that you want on there. That way, you pay for what you need only.

– You will save so much time because you won’t need to maintain any servers or hardware. The most time you will spend is configuring the cloud settings on your end.

Everything else is the responsibility of the third-party because they’re the one with the physical servers. The beauty part is that if one cloud server fails, another server will be available to keep you going. So, there should not be much downtime at all.

– You will never be asked to sign a long-term contract. You simply start a subscription that is yearly or monthly and once that is finished, you can cancel your service at any time.

Overall, a public cloud service is simpler to use, affordable, scalable, and more versatile. These are the reasons as to why you would want this particular cloud server instead of the private cloud service.

You will get the chance to use all the various services available and take advantage of the hardware and infrastructure. Meanwhile, you’ll be paying only when you use the services and you’ll never need to maintain any hardware.

The Cons of Public Cloud Services

As great as public cloud services are, there are some downsides to using them too. Below is a list of them.

– Since third-parties are hosting your cloud services and managing the hardware, you don’t have much control power over the data systems.

– Users need an internet connection to access the public cloud services. This limits the speed of data transfers to whatever the ISP will allow. Any company that needs to regularly transfer a lot of data will experience slower speeds with a public cloud service.

This puts the third-party provider under strain because they’re responsible for giving customers a fast user experience. If customers must wait too long for pages to load, they will be unhappy with the service.

– Even though you will save money with public cloud services, you also won’t gain much capital either. There are several tax advantages to having the network equipment and physical servers in your house.

If you use public cloud services, you won’t experience these advantages.

– Perhaps the biggest problem with public cloud services is that they have weak security. They do have basic security features implemented but these aren’t good enough for securing people’s private or personal information.

For example, if you are a financial institution then you certainly wouldn’t want to entrust a third-party with so many highly sensitive details about your customers. That would be too much of a liability.

The Pros of Private Cloud Services

There are several reasons as to why private cloud services might be better for your organization than public cloud services. Here are a few:

– Private clouds give you complete control over your information because all the hardware which runs it is in your organization. Then you can have your IT workers maintain the hardware and the information on it.

– Private clouds services are the best when it comes to security. Since the services are exclusively for your organization, you can structure the network, hardware, and information storage to only be accessible to you and no other party.

Public cloud services have limited security when it comes to this.

Their problem is that clients which share the data center could potentially access your information. This will not happen with a private cloud service. Also, if an organization resides in a nation with strict regulations, they may require the host of the public cloud and its users to all reside in that nation too.

– When a private cloud is established, an organization will put a firewall in front of it on their intranet. This allows for faster data transfers than what you’d find with a basic internet connection. Users can access pages quickly, unlike with a public cloud.

– It is easier to deliver compliance data with private cloud services. This includes compliance data like HIPAA, Sarbanes Oxley, and PCI DSS. You can do this with public cloud services too, but you’ll have less detailed data that way.

Private clouds are better because all the hardware, network configurations, and storage are for just one client.

– Private clouds allow you to customize the performance of the storage, hardware, and network.

Overall, you will have much better security with private cloud services because you have control over the equipment and configurations. Data security will not be something that you’ll need to be accountable for.

And if you transfer your classic IT system to the private cloud system, you can still achieve great productivity, more scalability, and better flexibility.

The Cons of Private Cloud Services

Private cloud services will give you a lot more security and control over data. However, you should be aware of some negative aspects of private clouds too.

– It will cost you more money to manage private cloud services. Not only do you need to purchase the hardware, but you need to employ IT workers to maintain it. Plus, you will need to hire system administrators to oversee everything.

Compare this to public cloud services where all the hardware and maintenance is provided by a third-party. You don’t need to purchase any hardware or manage anything.

– All aspects of the maintenance will fall on your organization’s shoulders; everything from the configuration to the energy and cooling of the hardware. If there is some unforeseen accident like water damage, physical damage, a power surge, or fire, then data on the hardware may be lost.

If you have an organization with several data centers and a private cloud for each one, the cost of the maintenance will increase.

– Your organization’s physical hardware will have limitations which will result in a capacity ceiling. For this reason, you may not have enough space to deploy all the servers that you need.

Customers are required to purchase the virtual infrastructure or system. After that, they will need to set the configurations and then perform regular maintenance on it. Customers will have to invest a lot of money for this system and then host it at their organization.

Some users find it easier and more convenient to use a public cloud because they can purchase an already prepared system at a cheaper cost. But if you are concerned about security issues, the private cloud service is worth the extra money paid.

How Do I Pick the Right Cloud for My Organization?

If you have an organization that needs to reduce IT expenses while saving more time, then a public cloud service is worth your consideration. Although the security is not the greatest, it will still be affordable, scalable, and efficient.

This is perfect for an organization which doesn’t have an IT department to conduct on-demand scaling.

Since multiple clients share public clouds, these clouds have weaker security and flexibility. This makes them vulnerable to data leaks and hacks.

That doesn’t mean this will happen but still, storing sensitive information through a public cloud would not be wise.

Big companies should not use public clouds. These clouds are better for new businesses and small businesses which have limited capital and less of a chance of losing data due to hacks and thefts.

Small businesses will save money with a public cloud service because they won’t have to construct any additional infrastructure.

New and small businesses like to be flexible and pay as they go. That is why they are still using public cloud services because they can save money and not have to sign any long-term contract.

Scalability is an ability you will have with virtually any service provider.

It allows you to scale your business only to the point where your needs are satisfied.

An organization will choose a private cloud service once they have important applications and information which need to be controlled better.

Any business that is part of an industry that is greatly regulated, like the financial industry, will want to use a private cloud service. This will make their sensitive data more secure as it will be segregated from other third-party organizations.

Public cloud services do have a lot of strong security practices established, but they won’t be strong enough for the needs of certain organizations. These could be needs related to the management or the overall culture of the organization.

Therefore, they will want a private cloud service for their organization. The downside is it’s a costlier choice and it will take up a lot more of their time. The equipment that is needed for the private cloud will need to be purchased, upgraded, backed up, and maintained.

Private cloud services are not too scalable either. You will need an IT administrator within your organization to manage it. This will certainly be possible for major companies which need to maintain their own core infrastructure and cloud servers.

If your infrastructure can only be controlled by you, then you can give your employees exclusive access to any content that is in the cloud. Companies will use a secure virtual private network (VPN) connection for this.

Anyone on the outside that tries to gain access to this secure network will have trouble because there are encryptions already established in it.

There are limited amounts of security features with a public cloud service. However, there are companies that will still use a public cloud service. They will just be careful in not sharing their infrastructure with any other third party.

A private cloud will guarantee accountability from its internal management. This is suitable for bigger companies.

Hybrid Cloud Service

Hybrid cloud services are a mixture of a public cloud service and private cloud service. Basically, an organization will use an in-house cloud service and a third-party cloud service to run various operations.

Let’s say a company has some applications which are not sensitive and other applications which are sensitive. A hybrid cloud will let an organization use a public cloud service for its affordability and scalability while still using a private cloud for crucial applications.

A hybrid cloud lets you be super-efficient because it lets you place things in different environments where the most efficiency can be obtained. Just remember that you’ll need to monitor several security platforms. Also, every area of your company must be able to communicate with one another.

Aerohive Cloud Services (Private & Public)

Aerohive Networks has a product line called “HiveManager” which lets its customers be able to deploy either a private or public cloud networking service. HiveManager gives customers easy policy creation, updates to the configuration, and upgrades to firmware.

You can even use one console to keep track of each networking device that you have with Aerohive. HiveManager makes troubleshooting simple and provides information on the client and performance. You will be able to plan your capacity and fix the security of remote office networks, and WLANs.

The delivery of HiveManager Online for network management will be through a “Software as a Service” public cloud-based solution. You will receive easy policy creation, upgrades for your firmware, and options for managing your centralized network at your premise without needing any dedicated server or hardware.

If you want to start minimally and save money, HiveManager Online was created for this very purpose. You don’t need to pay any money upfront and you can still build your network. The only cost will be toward the networking devices of Aerohive.

If you use the HiveManager Virtual Application, users will be able to utilize a HiveManager version that is a private cloud. There is no need to buy any extra hardware because this is a virtual solution.

There are fewer capital expenses this way just like with the “Software-as-a-service” version. The hardware equipment which customers currently have can use VMware to run the virtual solution. The solution even lets customers execute HiveManager from their private network.

Aerohive allows customers to appreciate the advantages of cloud, especially since they can pick to have a private or public cloud. It all depends on what they prefer.

Conclusion

The complexity of these cloud services will surprise almost anyone. Companies can use their own hardware and space to run private cloud networks for themselves or they can access public cloud services being offered by third parties through an internet connection.

Private clouds and public clouds are constantly evolving which means you can expect additional options in the future for big organizations and small organizations.

When you are ready to pick a cloud service for your organization, take into consideration what your business requires and then choose a cloud service to meet those requirements. You will never find one solution that will satisfy all your requirements.

I am a banker / Scrum Master with keen interest in cyber security, cloud and education. My intention is to inform students and readers about the latest news, training and education, jobs and salaries in the cyber security sphere.

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